Great Italian and French Composers eBook

When Spontini resigned his place as chapel-master
at the Court of Berlin, in 1832, Meyerbeer succeeded
him. He wrote much music of an accidental character
in his new position, but a slumber seems to have fallen
on his greater creative faculties. The German
atmosphere was not favorable to the fruitfulness of
Meyerbeer’s genius. He seems to have needed
the volatile and sparkling life of Paris to excite
him into full activity. Or perhaps he was not
willing to produce one of his operas, with their large
dependence on elaborat e splendor of production, away
from the Paris Grand Opera. During Meyerbeer’s
stay in Berlin he introduced Jenny Lind to the Berlin
public, as he afterward did indeed to Paris, her debut
there being made in the opening performance of “Das
Feldlager in Schlesien,” afterward remodeled
into “L’Etoile du Nord.”

Meyerbeer returned to Paris in 1849, to present the
third of his great operas, “Le Prophete.”
It was given with Roger, Viardot-Garcia, and Castellan
in the principal characters. Mme. Viardot-Garcia
achieved one of her greatest dramatic triumphs in
the difficult part of Fides. In London
the opera also met with splendid success, having, as
Chorley tells us, a great advantage over the Paris
presentation in “the remarkable personal beauty
of Signor Mario, whose appearance in his coronation
robes reminded one of some bishop-saint in a picture
by Van Eyck or Durer, and who could bring to bear
a play of feature without grimace into the scene of
false fascination, entirely beyond the reach of the
clever French artist Roger, who originated the character.”

“L’Etoile du Nord” was given to
the public February 16, 1854. Up to this time
the opera of “Robert” had been sung three
hundred and thirty-three times, “Les Huguenots”
two hundred and twenty-two, and “Le Prophete”
a hundred and twelve. The “Pardon de Ploermel,”
also known as “Dinorah,” was offered to
the world of Paris April 4, 1859. Both these operas,
though beautiful, are inferior to his other works.

III.

Meyerbeer, a man of handsome private fortune, like
Mendelssohn, made large sums by his operas, and was
probably the wealthiest of the great composers.
He lived a life of luxurious ease, and yet labored
with intense zeal a certain number of hours each day.
A friend one day begged him to take more rest, and
he answered smilingly, “If I should leave work,
I should rob myself of my greatest pleasure; for I
am so accustomed to work that it has become a necessity.”
Probably few composers have been more splendidly rewarded
by contemporary fame and wealth, or been more idolized
by their admirers. No less may it be said that
few have been the object of more severe criticism.
His youth was spent amid the severest classic influences
of German music, and the spirit of romanticism and
nationality, which blossomed into such beautiful and
characteristic works as those composed by his friend